In the following discussion, it is largely assumed that both the basic device and the sensor and/or actuator are implantable, and that in the in-use state they are in fact implanted in the body of a living creature, in particular a human or some other mammal. However, the invention is fundamentally also implantable in other types of electric measurement and/or action configurations.
One configuration of the type in question that has been known for decades and has become extremely widespread is the heart pacemaker configuration consisting of a heart pacemaker as the basic device, with at least one electrode line connected to it as the signal line, with at least one electrode provided on the distal end of the signal line and placed in or on a patient's heart in the in-use state. However, devices of this type also include implantable defibrillators, stimulation configurations for stimulation of the cochlear nerve, or implantable measurement and transmission configurations for intracorporeal detection and analysis and/or external transmission of measured values of physiological variables. Such arrangements may use multiple actuators and/or sensors, for example, as in the case of pacemaker configurations with sensor electrodes and/or other sensors, e.g., for detecting the blood oxygen saturation or the internal vascular blood pressure.
With such configurations, the signal line is typically an electric line having at least one elongated electric conductor, usually structured in the form of a coil and/or cable. In configurations having multiple actuators and/or sensors, the basic device is connected to each actuator and/or sensor by a separate conductor wire which has sufficient insulation. Such signal lines are available in a variety of forms and have proven successful in a variety of applications for many decades. However, they are relatively thick and rigid, and they have susceptibility to interference due to external electromagnetic fields, when they comprise multiple separate conductors.